Problem

Tronics is a fictional competitor to a home electronics store such as Best Buy. In order to test and validate their concepts each team must create low and mid-fi desktop walkthroughs.

Approach

A desktop walkthrough helps the design team to quickly simulate a service experience using simple props like toy figurines on a small-scale stage (often built from LEGO bricks or cardboard), and test and explore common scenarios and alternatives. The critical deliverable is not the model of the map/stage but the experience of playing through the service experience step by step.

Solution

Below you can see how desktop walkthroughs were used to help a team test and understand new service concepts. Service scripts were produced along with the artifacts and props. A low fidelity walkthrough (role-play) was recorded multiple times until the concept felt right. Next, mid-fidelity videos with scripts, artifacts, and props were created to to bring a greater sense of realism.

Result

After viewing the desktop walkthroughs, we discussed the insights that were uncovered—the good, the bad and the ugly! The students learned that desktop walkthroughs helped make the experiential process nature of a service—a story unfolding over time—tangible. Desktop walkthroughs allow service concepts to be iterated at a fast pace as new ideas can be instantly identified, tried, and tested. The service concepts get refined quickly. On the other hand, walkthroughs are very engaging as well as easier to do for a lot of participants. They especially help: 

• ‍To get a shared understanding within your team about the end-to-end customer experience 

• To identify the critical steps in the journey 

• To identify any other key elements or problem areas that need to be addressed 

• This makes it a great method to do before you invest too much time and effort on creating a beautiful visualization of a customer journey.